Mini Jerk Reactions to the Divisional Playoff: Tom Brady vs. the Saints

Somebody get this man a high-five. 

If you need any further proof that the playoffs are Tom Brady's dojo and he's got "STRIKE HARD, STRIKE FIRST, NO MERCY"  stenciled on the wall - and if you do then you're probably beyond my help at this point - I present you with last nights Divisional playoff at New Orleans. 

Over the course of the season, Brady had some of his poorer performances on the road (a loss at Chicago), prime time (losing to the Rams on Monday Night Football) and against the Saints (two losses, two touchdowns, five interceptions). So what does Mr. January/February do? Win big. On the road. In prime time. At New Orleans. Brady's dojo. Brady's rules. 

And the thing that has to be driving his few remaining detractors and the drooling imbeciles who still want to chalk up his success to systems and supporting casts and pure, stupid luck insane today is that this wasn't his best performance. Hell, you could make a case it was his worst game in the last couple of months. He was 18-for-33 for 199 yards and a passer rating of 92.9. In terms of pure numbers, it was the least he's produced since the Rams game in Week 11. But in every other respect it was vintage playoff GOAT.

This was Hippocratic Oath Brady: First, do no harm. He still hasn't lost a fumble since the second game of the season. And he didn't throw any picks, which continues a trend he's been on. He's thrown just one is in his last six games, a stretch in which he's had 209 attempts and 134 completions. And when the Saints couldn't take care of the ball, Brady's retribution was swift and cruel. 

I'll give you two prime examples. One is the 3rd quarter, with the Saints leading 20-13 and driving with the chance to put the game out of reach, when Antoine Winfield punched the ball out of Jared Cook's hands at the Saints 40. Anyone who's been paying attention since about the 2000 Orange Bowl knew that Brady was coming onto the field with a Terminator-like head-up digital display in his eyes. Identifying targets. Evaluating them in terms of risk and priority. Assessing threats. And generally striking fear in the New Orleans defenders who knew what was coming and that they were powerless to stop it. So he immediately hit Cameron Brate on an out route for 19. Let Ronald Jones pick up an easy 15 on two carries. Then on 2nd & 5 from the 6, he went shotgun trips left, scanned the field back and forth like a lawn sprinkler before locking in on his safest target, Leonard Fournette on a pivot route at the 1 that re-tied the game.

The second example was when it was still a 23-20 game and Brees threw that terrible pick to Devin White where Alvin Kamara was running a seam route and never even turned his head to the ball. It was the kind of thing that was happening all night with the Saints. Their receivers either couldn't gain separation coming off the line against the Bucs press man, or their timing was a mess, or they weren't where Brees expected them to be. Regardless, as soon as Tampa took over at the Saints 38, you knew there was no way Brady was not going to terminate them. With extreme prejudice. To that point, Rob Gronkowski had done nothing save get his fingertips on a couple of balls he couldn't secure. But any time Gronk faces solo coverage in the red zone of the sort he got from Alex Azalone, Brady's programming still identifies that as a target. And he hit him on a 14-yard curl to set up a 1st & goal. Two plays later Brady took it in himself for the kill shot. 

So how is he pulling this off now, after struggling early in the season? I'm just speculating here. But to me Brady's improvement has been directly related to how much he's been running Brady's offense. The one he mastered over the course of a couple of decades in New England. Like so many other quarterbacks have before him, he found Bruce Arians' scheme to be as confusing as the first two episodes of "WandaVision" (but without the benefit of Elizabeth Olsen). So he scrapped it. Either directly or indirectly. And my guess is that Arians is such a raging egomaniac (never forget that he got the nickname "The QB Whisperer" from himself), that Brady started doing his own thing without permission. Midway through the season you started to see Brady motioning guys in order to be able to expose coverages, identify his mismatches and decide where he's going with the ball before the ball is snapped. Which are all things Arians' QBs are not supposed to do. At this point, I wonder if his headset is even plugged in. Or if you pulled one of his headphones away from his ear you'd just be hearing Kenny G or John Tesh in there. But flat out, the Bucs are winning because Brady took control. And the defense knows that all they have to do is force a mistake or two and the game is won, so they play like it.

And just to put in perspective what we're witnessing here: 

• Brady now has 32 postseason wins. That's exactly double the total of No. 2 on the all time list, Joe Montana.
• Brady has been a starter for 19 seasons. And been to the conference title game in 14 of them, or 73.68%.
• Brady's career record in Divisional Playoff games is 14-2,  a .875 winning percentage. Since the creation of the 16-game schedule, only 7 teams have had a better record in a regular season.
• Brees is 4th on the all time wins list (regular and postseason) with 181. Brady now has 182 more wins than losses.
• Brees is a 1st ballot Hall of Famer and has 9 career postseason wins. Brady has 10 career playoff road wins.
• Brees has 8 postseason wins against NFC opponents. So does Brady.

And he still has the chance to add to these unimaginable totals next Sunday in what will be one of the classic quarterback matchups of all time. Brady has been in more of those than anyone. Including last night. If you think he can't come out on top of this one too, you really haven't been paying attention all these years.